1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for analyzing damage to products in a distribution process.
2. The Relevant Technology
An important object of distribution operations is to “promptly” transport products while maintaining the “high quality” thereof. If any product is damaged during a distribution process, the cause of the damage must be found as early as possible, and appropriate measures must be promptly taken therefor.
To examine and analyze the tendency and cause of damage during transportation, it is very important to be able to visually more precisely and freely check each attribute to determine which part of the product is frequently damaged and the like. However, the damage to the product is merely drawn on plain view as so-called image data, thereby hindering statistical processes from being easily executed as in the case with mathematical data. If a statistical process is executed, a very inefficient method must be carried out which comprises, for example, classifying each damaged position and manually drawing damaged points on a chart one by one.
Information on damage to products in a conventional distribution process has been analyzed by recording damage information on a sheet or a magnetic medium at a check point provided in the middle of or at the terminal of the distribution process and sending the recorded damage information to an analysis section. All data processed by statistical operations is figured for the quantity of damaged products, the number of occurrences, and the like as well as classification items generally representing damaged areas. A computer is used to classify, extract, and total data, but visual statistical analysis of the tendency of damage positions, which is very effective in analyzing the cause of the damage, must depend on manual classification and input of data. Accordingly, the visual statistical analysis requires a relatively large amount of work time and loads.
Corrective measures must be promptly taken for damage to products during a distribution process if it involves a particular problem. If such measures are not taken, the problem may spread immediately because a large amount of products are distributed everyday.
After precisely determining a damage occurrence location, the tendency and characteristic of damage must be promptly determined and analyzed. The conventional statistical method depending on figures and classification items representing damaged areas is not sufficiently precise. Further, analysis including visual elements requires an excessively large amount of time and labor, thereby hindering precise analysis data to be promptly produced.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a damage status analyzing method and system that can promptly adequately analyze the cause of damage that may occur during a distribution process.